Pacific Biosciences Research Center<\/a> in SOEST. \u201cAll but a tiny handful of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Estimates have suggested that only 10\u201335% of this spectacular diversity, including some of the well-known and beautiful Hawaiian tree snails, still survive, a mere fraction of the unique native Hawaiian natural heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"snail](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/manoa-soest-land-snails-300x169.jpg\")
Beautiful shell colors and patterns of the Cuban snail Polymita picta. (Photo credit: B. Reyes-Tur)
\nTracking trends through \u2018shell bank\u2019<\/p>\n
Cowie, along with Philippe Bouchet and Beno\u00eet Fontaine of the Mus\u00e9um national d\u2019Histoire naturelle in Paris, placed an emphasis on Hawai\u02bbi and other Pacific Islands because this region has experienced the highest numbers of land snail species extinctions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany islands are remote, and the level of interest in land snails as a component of the global biodiversity conservation agenda is low,\u201d the authors noted. \u201cThe conservation status of many island land snails thus remains, at best, out of date.<\/p>\n
However, land snails have an asset that other animal groups, especially invertebrates, do not \u2014 their shells, which can remain in the soil for many tens or several hundreds of years after the death of the animal. These shells, persisting in the soil for centuries, create a \u201cshell bank\u201d that allows researchers to identify species that went extinct before they could ever be officially recorded by modern science.<\/p>\n
Extinctions and their causes<\/p>\n
Most land snail extinctions have been caused primarily by habitat loss and the introduction of non-native species. Many high volcanic islands had diverse and highly endemic land snail faunas, with 50\u2013100 endemic species on even very small islands such as Rapa in the Austral Islands.<\/p>\n
The research team identified a recurring pattern of extinction that follows human arrival: deforestation and the indirect impacts of invasive species began with the initial arrival of people and became even more extensive and catastrophic following Western colonization. Direct impacts of invasive species on island land snails are exemplified by rats and deliberately introduced predators such as the rosy wolf snail (Euglandina) and the New Guinea flatworm (Platydemus manokwari), both snail predators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese have probably been the ultimate cause of extinction following the devastating habitat loss that initiated the extinction process,\u201d said Cowie.<\/p>\n
For more information, see SOEST\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading time: 2 minutesInvasive species, like this flatworm, contribute to land snail extinctions. (Photo credit: S. Sugiura) Extinction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[152898,152894,86006,3652,152908,152907,152905,152902,152899,152896,152900,152887,34347,34348,152895,152903,111,139,69,152892,152888,152893,152909,152904,9633,152906,152889,152901,152891,152897,152890,145,34330,34329],"class_list":{"0":"post-269406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-anthropogenic-extinction","9":"tag-benoit-fontaine","10":"tag-biodiversity-conservation","11":"tag-biology","12":"tag-captive-breeding-snails","13":"tag-deforestation-pacific-islands","14":"tag-endemic-snail-species","15":"tag-euglandina","16":"tag-habitat-loss-pacific-islands","17":"tag-hawaiian-tree-snails","18":"tag-invasive-species-impacts","19":"tag-island-land-snail-extinction","20":"tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","21":"tag-manoa-research","22":"tag-museum-national-dhistoire-naturelle-paris","23":"tag-new-guinea-flatworm","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-pacific-biosciences-research-center","28":"tag-pacific-island-biodiversity-loss","29":"tag-philippe-bouchet","30":"tag-philosophical-transactions-of-the-royal-society-b","31":"tag-platydemus-manokwari","32":"tag-publication","33":"tag-rapa-austral-islands","34":"tag-robert-cowie","35":"tag-rosy-wolf-snail","36":"tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","37":"tag-shell-bank-research","38":"tag-soest","39":"tag-technology","40":"tag-uh-manoa","41":"tag-university-of-hawaii-at-manoa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"snail\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/manoa-soest-land-snails-2.jpg\")
Invasive species, like this flatworm, contribute to land snail extinctions. (Photo credit: S. Sugiura)<\/p>\n